Okay, received my new Saber HexFx on Friday! I believe I may the very first person to get one of these HexFX with the new body design. I ordered the original version of it about 6 weeks ago, and was informed that this newer body style was replacing the old one. The production hadn't quite finished yet, so I had to wait the extra few weeks. Overall, it's a nice looking instrument. Below is a down and dirty quick pic from my phone of it out in front of my bass family.
I bought this bass primarily to use as a bass to run synth and midi through a Roland GR-55 (in conjunction with a couple of other synth modules I have). If you notice directly behind the HexFx is a bass that has a GK-3B pickup system on it. I was not satisfied with the performance of that system. It had a lot of issues with latency, tracking, and false triggering of notes when trying to use midi functions.
So, here's my quick initial review of the HexFx, mostly dealing with it's use for midi triggering:
The HexFX is proving to be much more capable of transmitting a clean signal for midi functionality than the bass equipped with the GK-3B pickup system. The tracking is far better and latency is pretty much non-existent. I am still having some issues with the occasional false triggering of notes. This happens every now and then, and is usually due to string muting issues... a small sympathetic string vibration or harmonic that isn't perfectly muted, will sometimes get picked up as a note and transmitted as midi information and trigger a "false note". I've mitigated it a bit by tweaking the parameters in the GR-55, particularly regarding adjustment of the string sensitivity settings. This has help somewhat, but I am also going to be trying a couple of other solutions:
First, I have a Gruvgear Fretwrap string mute coming in the mail like this:
Hopefully that will work to dampen some of the the inadvertent string vibrations.
Secondly, I'm fully aware that some of the issue could be reduced by better muting techniques. Generally my muting technique isn't too bad, but there is a design issue with this bass that I am not used to. Being that there are no magnetic pickups on out, I have no where to rest my right hand's thumb. I am used to resting my thumb on the pickup as I play, usually plucking with my index and middle fingers, while my pinky, ring finger, and thumb assist with muting strings. Without a place to rest my thumb, particularly when plucking the B and E strings, my technique is really off. So, long story short, I plan to build either a thumb-rest or finger ramp to help with this issue.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with how it is functioning, and hopefully with those few tweaks it will be 100% what I'm after.
The bass is very comfortable to play. Build quality is superb, nice comfortable neck, action didn't require any adjustment (low with no buzzing). The pure sound from the bass is very clear and clean, lots of sustain, just as described.
I will try to post some video soon showing off the midi and synth functions.
I bought this bass primarily to use as a bass to run synth and midi through a Roland GR-55 (in conjunction with a couple of other synth modules I have). If you notice directly behind the HexFx is a bass that has a GK-3B pickup system on it. I was not satisfied with the performance of that system. It had a lot of issues with latency, tracking, and false triggering of notes when trying to use midi functions.
So, here's my quick initial review of the HexFx, mostly dealing with it's use for midi triggering:
The HexFX is proving to be much more capable of transmitting a clean signal for midi functionality than the bass equipped with the GK-3B pickup system. The tracking is far better and latency is pretty much non-existent. I am still having some issues with the occasional false triggering of notes. This happens every now and then, and is usually due to string muting issues... a small sympathetic string vibration or harmonic that isn't perfectly muted, will sometimes get picked up as a note and transmitted as midi information and trigger a "false note". I've mitigated it a bit by tweaking the parameters in the GR-55, particularly regarding adjustment of the string sensitivity settings. This has help somewhat, but I am also going to be trying a couple of other solutions:
First, I have a Gruvgear Fretwrap string mute coming in the mail like this:
Hopefully that will work to dampen some of the the inadvertent string vibrations.
Secondly, I'm fully aware that some of the issue could be reduced by better muting techniques. Generally my muting technique isn't too bad, but there is a design issue with this bass that I am not used to. Being that there are no magnetic pickups on out, I have no where to rest my right hand's thumb. I am used to resting my thumb on the pickup as I play, usually plucking with my index and middle fingers, while my pinky, ring finger, and thumb assist with muting strings. Without a place to rest my thumb, particularly when plucking the B and E strings, my technique is really off. So, long story short, I plan to build either a thumb-rest or finger ramp to help with this issue.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with how it is functioning, and hopefully with those few tweaks it will be 100% what I'm after.
The bass is very comfortable to play. Build quality is superb, nice comfortable neck, action didn't require any adjustment (low with no buzzing). The pure sound from the bass is very clear and clean, lots of sustain, just as described.
I will try to post some video soon showing off the midi and synth functions.
Last edited:
